Debatest clades. Republican senators proposing a resolution calling on the federal government to stop cohearsing states to adopt the highly controversial education standards. News of how much it would actually cost to implement the program has many states rethinking the whole program. Here with more Michael Mcshane a fellow in education policy study at the American Enterprise institute. Hes coed or it of the new book common core meets education reform. What it all means. Welcome back to the show, mike. So lindsay graham, republican senator and several others saying the government is doing is essentially coerce. Do you agree . Coercion is a strong word. I think strong promotion is a pretty accurate way to describe it. In the race to the top program that was part of the economic stimulus package, as well as no child left behind waivers which were regulatory relief offered by the department of education. Those encouraged states to adopt the common corps. Standards or common and College Career ready standards. Gerri okay. Before we get too deep in to this. What graham is saying hes not talking about the details which were eloquently put forward by you moments ago. Hes talking about the fact the government is putting money on the substantial and thats encouraging states to get involved. However, states are just now finding they are going to be on the hook as well for as much as 12 billion. 10 billion up front and 800 million in seek of the success of seven years. Its a huge amount of money. How is it possible these states can even afford it given what has been going on with state finances. Well, thats a great question. I mean, in one way, some of those costs might be in purchasing textbooks or technology or other resources that states are already sort of planning to do every so often. But a lot of the new infrastructure upgrades there are real question marks how states will be able to afford getting high Speed Internet to the school they need. The horde ware and software grades necessary to give the tests. I think its a big question mark. Gerri florida, indiana, South Carolina all saying, you know, we may not be involved with common core. Where are they thinking about opting out at this point . Well, i think there are two issues. One, you already highlighted which is about cost. The rubber is starting to meet the road and people are less than enthused about having to pick up the price tag. I think the other piece is about politics. Were seeing push back on the right and the left. Gerri absolutely. Its interesting, parents say they dont like it. Teachers say they dont like it. It seems like everybody is against it. Tell our viewers the essence of that objection to common core. I think on the political right mostly the issue is what you highlighted earlier talking about federal overreach. People dont like their state was sort of promoted by the race to the top program or an issue in the 2012 election, et. Cetera. Its interesting on the political left, as the common core standards are become the backbone for accountability programs for schools and teachers, those that actually fall under those programs, teachers like you highlighted and schools as well are starting to say, wow, hay have we had adequate professional development. Are the tests ready . Do we feel like well be fairly evaluated based on the standards. Gerri what were not talking about which is important in a common core conversation if it is a program developed by elites to promote elite education for competition in the global marketplace. I think a lot of people have objections to the idea that this was put forward by bill gates. Essentially to provide workers for his company, sort of. What do you make of the goal educational goals of common core . I think the educational goals of common core are pretty broad and about promoting literacy and numerous. I think some of the thought of elitism are a little bit exaggerated. But i think that just the general idea of having a more uniform standards across the country is something that a lot families will pushback against. They have a different vision what the educated child should be. Gerri they want to have a role in education. They want a say how their kids are instructed no bigamist i are or surprise there that people dont want to be ignored. And i understand that. What do people tell you . What do parents tell you about these programs . You know, its a mixed bag, i mean, some teachers, especially lip. I started my career, i was in innercity High School Teacher in alabama. Teachers that come from small states that previously didnt have access to the same type of materials that teachers in texas, california, or florida that are bigger markets. I think a lot of them have a positive view of the common core. They get to use the apps being developed in silicon valley. Which they didnt have access to before. Again, i think a lot of teachers are frustrated they feel they havent had adequate professional development. I think they think the tests are gerri lets be clear. Its not adequate professional development. Theyre afraid they get graded and scored and maybe lose money; right . Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. These are the backbone for the tests that evaluate how well theyre doing their job. So they are rightfully, probably concerned. Gerri its a fascinating topic. I keep hearing wild things about how kids are being taught that just makes me crazy. Mike, you have to come back and talk to us more about this. Great taupic. Thank you very much for your time. Totally. Any time. Gerri and first your cable bill. Remember that . Then your cell phone bill. Now more and more banks are doing away with offering free checking. Yes, you pay for that, too. Joining me now kneel weinberg. The editor in chief of american banker. Welcome back to the show. Its great to have you here. The number we were showing here is fascinating. The proportion of bank account to have a fee. It just, you know, it goes down and down and down now just below 60 the ones that offer free checking. What is going on . Why is this happening . Well, you can perhaps thank senator richard durbin. There was a durbin amendment which meant banks can charge so much in fees when you use the debit card. The debit card used to get a lot of ref new from character. Checking account. If they dont get it from that they charge fees. What you see the fee gerri thed to frank . Did dodd frank have a role . Its part of the dodd frank ability. Gerri lets back up six paces here. Dodd frank. We bailed out the bank with taxpayer dollars and now its coming back to bite us in the butt. We no longer have free checking. How is it we pay both times . Its the law of unintended consequences. The idea occur win bin was talking about punishing the banks and helping small savers inspect tend hurts small savers theyre the ones paying fees. Gerri lets take a look at the numbers. These Monthly Service fees are interested for no interest Checking Account they go from 1. 77 in 2009 to 5. 54 in 2013. When you look at interestpaying Checking Account. 2013 14. 64. Is there any way out of this . Can you not pay the fee . There is a way. Actually, the largest bank which are subject to the fee cap on the debit cards. They are getting rid of the free checking. The Smaller Banks those less than 10 billion in assets for the vast majority have free checking. Gerri thats interesting. Because they are under a lot of pressure right now in term of repaying the government for some of these. Most of these Community Banks are gone from tarp. They certainly are facing a lot of financial troubles. Theres a huge, obviously, new amount of regulation they have to face. Youre seeing the number of these Community Banks go down drastically. And yet we keep using these institutions. Take a a look at these numbers. Customers putting more cash in to noninterest Checking Accounts. Should we applaud because people are putting more money away or should we say its not the right place to put it . You can put in a Checking Account and get nothing and in a civic and almost nothing. They leave in the Checking Account. Gerri we know they are getting returned very little for the money. Of the inflation they are losing money. Gerri what do you say to people who believe i dont want to pay this for a Checking Account. My money could be used better elsewhere. What should they do, neil . You should get district depositive it or find another way. Look at the small print and find out what you have to do at the particular bank to get free checking. Look for a small bank or a credit union or a large bank. Many if you still have your salary depositive ited directly from the employer will give you free checking. Gerri what proportion do you have any idea how many allow you to i think its still the majority of large banks. Gerri thats the thing to do. Right . , i mean. Either that go to a small bank. You lose the national atm network. Thats tradeoff. Credit union. Yeah. There are a lot of options. Thank you for come together show. Great to have you here. Thank you very much. Now we want to know what you think. Here is our question tonight. Are you feed up. Feed up with bank fees . Log on to gerriwillis. Com. Vote on the righthand side of the screen. Well show you the results at the end of the show. We have more to come. Including why consumers arent buying electric cars. And let the obamacare bailout begin. The first insurance company, drum roll, already set to get hands on millions of taxpayer dollars. I kid you not. Details coming up. Tonight new development in the story of a target hack attack. Investigative blogger says the target Vendor Information use bid the hacker, well likely a heating ventilation and airconditioning contractor. They got in in november using stolen credible from a pennsylvaniabased hvac company. Cant make it up. And a bailout for insurers. Its a drastic unintended consequence from obamacare weve been warning about for months. And today a major provider announcing its gging to be needing hundred of millions of dollars to stay afloat. Will you wind up picking up the tab. Joining me now president of American Action forrum. Great to see you, doug. Lets talk about human that here. They have a call on u. S. Tax payer dollars. I cant get over this. Weve been warned it was going happen. What do you make of it . I think there is a predictable result of the policy. The way it works is that if you end up with a set of customers in your Insurance Plan who are very expensive, and arent paying premium enough to cover their cost, and theyre not. Get a provision where the government picks up first 50 of the losses and then 80 . Its so thecalled bailout provision. What were seeing is the result of a bad policy with bad execution. We saw on healthcare. Gov. Gerri but doug, im already paying for this through higher taxes, my costs for Health Coverage is already higher. Im getting less and paying more. Now we pay this, too . I just dont sit well with taxpayers. Here is the way it was designed. The idea you have a good policy. We dont. But if you have a good policy in place then there are other companies that have the lowcost patients. Theyll pay a tax. This policy is supposed to be classic tax and spend. Tax the winners, spend it on the losers. The trouble is were probably not getting the winners. Its a poorly designed policy. Cbo thought it would make money for the government now were seeing the First Company saying no, were losing money and the question is how big will it be . Gerri well, you know, you have an interesting answer to the question. I think what youre saying, least at my producers, not everybody come up front like humana and say say give me more cash. Theyre going raise rates. Its inevitable next year. No one want to be in the position. The premiums will go up. What happens then . The people who are cheap dont buy insurance because they got doctor on their own. The expensive buy insurance, it gets worse. Its a fundamental problem with obamacare. Its a tip of the iceberg. Gerri tip of the iceberg here. Here is humana enrollees 20 are aged 30 and younger. They said we cant make money doing that. The program doesnt work for us. I think its a tragedy theyre asking for money. I think the whole program is tragedy to begin with. Remember it was stole humana saying were going get 40 young people. The young invincible in there and made them price policy accordingly. Gerri it didnt work. Its not happening. Now we have the problem. Gerri no. And now new reports that people cant keep their doctor and the Narrow Networks now. Which astonishes me. Now they force the insurers to broaden the networks, have more doctors, more hospitals available. But how . , i mean, doesnt the economics of this depend on Something Else . Depends on the that will increase their losses and then theyll be back. All right. [laughter] the administration i dont understand this at all. You have to cover the benefits it makes the insurance more expensive. You have to cover the cost of taxes. More expensive. And the insurers are trying to find a way to keep premium down. Tight network do it. Now the administration say we want the low premium but Broad Network to. It basically means every insurers has to lose money. Thats the plan. Gerri and so then we can bankroll them further and give them more taxpayer money. My head is spinning. Is there any way out of this . Seriously, every day, every week another nail in the coffin of obamacare, but its the law of the land. Its not going away, doug. The law has to be changed. I mean, this is fundamentally flawed. The administrations solution to all problems is to one, throw money at it. Two, blame the insurers, and three, relax any rule that looks politically potent. Thats not going to work. [laughter] gerri i know. It is a politically run program for politicians who dont want to be on it. It crazy. Are you going to be talking to some of these insurancers and coming days . I know youre work on a business looking at all Health Care Issues yes. Gerri tell me about that. Weve talked to insurancers. We have talked to the advocacy groups who study the policies. We have built the capacity to analyze reforms. Repeal and replace, as we so seen out of the senate with coburn, burr, and senator hatch. See what happens to premiums. Turns out the premiums go down. Coverage is about the same. We have the capacity to understand how we can fix this thing, really, what is going to deliver lower cost. What deliver low premium. What is going to enhance coverage. Im quite excited about it. Can you get anything done before another election . Dont you have to have at least two houses of congress or a house of congress and the president seat . Can you get anything done unless you have a majority rule . Umm, i have no illusions were going it see the law changed in the near term, but i have lived my life in the vein belief that better informed policy makers will make better policy. Well see. [laughter] gerri well make a side bet on that, doug. Great for thank you for coming on. Later in the somehow why you should expect a wild and wacky jobs report tomorrow. Next we answer the question how do you do that . We help you decide if an electric car is right for you. Dont go away. Can you really save money driving an electric car . Gerri americans falling out of love with their electric car . Listen to this. Sales of the two most popular cars in january, electric cars, taking big hit sales for one didnt even break a thousand. Despite the thousand of dollars in tax credits and rebates uncle sam is using to lure in customers. Is there any benefit of going green for your bottom line. Hey, lauren. Good to see you, thank you for helping us with this one. So do you think we have a right here . Are americans falling out of love with electric cars . I dont think there was a big love for them to begin with. There was a lot of high excitement of having one and being the first to have a green car. What happened is you look at the total sales 3. 3 of all cars sold. Its a teen any amount. They are people that want to have the cars. You think about sales overall. Theyre not something people want. Theres a range anxiety that its hard to get over. Gerri look at the numbers. Sales down 50 . The volt down 62 . Theres also the factor of, lets face it, gas prices are doing all right here. Take a look, todays average regular 2 3 month 27 a gallon. The trent has been down. It seems to me maybe you dont start thinking about green or electric. Right. Its true. Price of gas and, of course, when you think about the cold weather and the impact it has on batteries weve had cold weather across the country. Everyone is thinking, you know, if ive got an car maybe its not a choice for me. Its a lot of factors to be considered. Depending upon where you live. The strong market are atlantic and frisk. Those are the real markets where they are stong. You dont see them in places like new york. Plugin and drag your cord across to the building. You have to pay for the connection in addition to the parking. Gerri talk about the battery and what is happening in the cold weather. The cold weather can cut the battery life in half. Thats typical. Batteries in any car struggle a lot when the weather is sub zero anywhere in the northeast. It was 2 degrees this morning. No car wants to star. Neither do we. You think about how it cuts the life in half. It will make an impact on the daily drive. It could effect the sale of an electric car. Gerri as a consumer and looking for value for money. One of the things you consider buying a new car is depreciation. Let me tell you, the cars depreciation on them amazing. Spark after five years it keeps 28 of the value. The ford focus. 20 . Nissan, the nissan leaf after five years is worth 15 of what you paid for it. I mean, come on its unbelievable. Gerri right . Do all cars appreciate that much . No. Regular cars dont depreciate that much. When you lease a vehicle the payment is based on the car worth down the road. Dont forget about the smart and the ev and the fiat. Those are cars not worth nearly as much. Theres a resale value the after market on these type of cars people dont want them. I can buy a new car and it would make more sense. When you look at the cars going auction. They are being bought but they take a long time to get them off used car lots. One thing before you buy a used car there might be a good dea